


A Tactician Like You

by Ryeaugla



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Reincarnation, Strategy & Tactics, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 11:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11252121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla
Summary: Robin's taken an interest in the newest recruit that's been summoned, noting something that she said when summoned. As a result, he's found a kindred spirit in her and a new friend.





	A Tactician Like You

**Author's Note:**

> Forgive me if my characterization of Katarina is a little off, as I haven't actually played NMotE. I'm just going off what I got from the wiki and from playing Heroes.

"Please, call me Katarina. I once planned to be a tactician, but that... didn't work out."

Robin had decided on a whim to watch the Summoner fire off their Breidablik and bring another hero to Askr to fight alongside the ones who were already here. The Summoner was crossing their fingers for a certain hero from the new group that had showed up in the latest missions, and had fired the gun on a whim when they had scrounged up five orbs. When the smoke cleared, a magenta haired girl with a blue tunic and a red scarf was left behind and began to introduce herself. The Summoner almost immediately started shouting in glee and ran out of the area to do a victory lap. "YES, I GOT KATARINA! OH MY GOD!" They screamed as they left the summoning gate. The new recruit stood there in a daze, not exactly sure what to do. The Askrian prince and princess apologized for their Summoner's behavior before giving the girl directions as to where she might be able to find a room to settle down in this place she was now to call home.

"I'll actually take her there." Robin came out from behind the pillar he was hiding from and addressed the royals accordingly. They were shocked to see the purple-clad mage here, but figured it was probably for the best that he take over, as the prince and princess wished to return to the business they had been doing before the Summoner called them out to the gates for that impromptu session. He then walked forward and offered the magenta haired girl a hand, but she shied away a bit.

"W-who are you?" She asked. Robin gave the friendliest smile he could as his hand still remained offered up for the new girl to take.

"My name's Robin." He introduced himself. "I'm a tactician from the World of Awakening. I heard that you were planning to be a tactician yourself at one point... Isn't that right, Katarina?" A small gasp escaped Katarina's lips after hearing Robin's introduction.

"You're... a tactician?" She repeated as she looked the white haired mage up and down. He wasn't exactly what Katarina had imagined a tactician to look like, but at the same time, she didn't exactly have reason to doubt his claim. A second later, she gingerly grasped his half-gloved hand as she spoke. "What kind of army do you lead? You do lead an army, right?"

"We're kind of a ragtag group, really." Robin chuckled, thinking about the makeup of the Shepherds. "I mean, yeah, we're the prince's private squadron, but at the same time, recruitment is pretty open to anybody with a good heart." Katarina frowned at that proclamation and looked away. She didn't think her heart was good enough for the prince's squadron that Robin claimed he led.

"I see..." She muttered quietly. "You'll lead me back to the castle to find a room, right?"

"That's why I came forward to you, isn't it?" That was kind of a silly question for Katarina to ask, now that Robin had brought that point up. Gods, she had been training to become a tactician at one point, so she should have been more observant of that kind of thing. Maybe it was a good thing she had given up on that dream. Either way, she allowed Robin to bring her back to Askr Castle and find a room where she would be staying in the giant building.

"Will I ever see you again?" She asked before disappearing into her room. Robin's smile remained as gentle and sincere as ever.

"I'm sure you will. Besides, I want to know more about you and why you decided to give up being a tactician." Katarina's heart sank as she was asked that. Once again her eyes strayed from Robin as she spoke up again.

"...I'm sorry, but I can't reveal that to you now." She sighed. "It's... rather hard for me to think about, after all..." Robin rocked back on his heels and his mood soured a bit at being told this. However, at the same time, he figured that the shy girl wouldn't open up so easily around him as well, figuring that all she really knew about him was that he was a tactician for a prince's private army.

"All right, but if you need anything else, I'm right down the hall on the opposite side, in the room with my name printed on it." And with that, Robin spun around and started walking away back to his room. Katarina watched carefully through a crack in her door to see just where exactly he was going and silently noted which room he had disappeared into. He mentioned that it had his name on the door, but she didn't need that information now that she had watched exactly which room he had entered.

Katarina wanted to make up for all the terrible things she had done. That was why she had allowed herself to be summoned by the Askrians in the first place. And now, she was sure she had an even better method of making up for past misdeeds thanks to that kind mage who had brought her back to this castle.

The next morning, there was a knock at Robin's door. He was half asleep when he answered it, and was quite surprised to see that Katarina was standing there before him, hands knit together in front of her as she bowed her head to give her request.

"Please teach me how to be a tactician like you!"

* * *

Robin was quite impressed on how quickly Katarina picked up the basics. She wasn't kidding when she said she once planned to be a tactician, and had clearly put in some training in the art of tactics before now. Even though she lost at chess, Katarina managed to hold her own against Robin. Halfway through the game, it had become clear to him that he was fighting a skilled opponent, so he had dropped all pretenses that he was going easy on her and tipped the scales. Katarina was slightly downtrodden by her defeat, but at the same time, she figured that she wouldn't be able to win against a trained tactician when he pulled out all the stops against her.

Next, Robin wanted to see just how Katarina fared with her weapon of choice. He mentioned that a good tactician needed to get out there on the battlefield with the rest of the soldiers. It showed confidence and willingness to get one's hand dirty, rather than sitting around in the safety of the allied base and barking orders at people with no experience for how fights actually went about. Upon being summoned to Askr, Katarina had come with a Rauðrowl tome, and she managed to use this magic rather skillfully. Robin was impressed - not only did he have very little to teach about tactics, but very little to teach about battle as well. In fact, Katarina was all but good to go as a tactician after watching the Summoner do the job a couple times, he was fairly certain. After this session, he was going to go to the Summoner and ask them if Katarina could shadow them for a few fights in the Tempest Trials, just to see how they commanded their troops. But for now, he wanted to know exactly what had happened to cause Katarina to give up so close to her goal.

"Let's sit down for a little while, okay?" Robin used that same gentle voice he always had to coax Katarina into a chair next to him. He wanted to broach the subject carefully, so he took a second to pick his words for the inquiry. "I know I asked once before and you declined to comment, but... now that we've gotten to know each other better and I've made it clear I'm not going to antagonize you for whatever it is, will you now tell me why you decided to stop training to be a tactician?"

As expected, Katarina shied away from Robin again at this question. He was almost certain that he would be rejected again, and he was ready to tell her to not bother, when she cut him off before he began.

"...I'm actually an assassin." She confessed. "I was raised to be a cold blooded killer. I infiltrated the Altean Royal Guard training camp and was working alongside several other recruits to become royal guards."

"Wait a second... Did you say... Altean Royal Guard?" Robin asked, cutting Katarina off before she could progress further. It hadn't even occurred to Robin prior to now, but if she had brought up Altea, that meant that she was from Archanea like him, albeit about 2000 years prior to his own time period! Nevertheless, he continued. "That means... you wanted to become one of Prince Marth's guards, did you not?" Katarina gasped after Robin mentioned the prince. She hadn't seen him here in Askr as another summoned hero, so did that mean that Robin knew him some other way?

"How do you...?" Before she could finish the question, Robin took over. He looked out at nothing in particular as he revealed a bit about himself.

"You remember the prince I told you about, right? The one whose army I help command?" Katarina nodded quietly in response. "He's actually Marth's far-flung descendant. I'm actually from Archanea as well, but about 2000 years later than the time when you were around." The magenta haired mage could hardly believe what she was hearing. In a way, Robin was in a similar role she had tried to be in, albeit millenia later. In fact, Robin was exactly like _him_. Regardless, she figured she might as well finish the story she started.

"I see..." She said quietly. "I tried to assassinate Prince Marth by posing as one of his guards, though..." It was obvious that she and the others in her group had failed though, if Marth ended up having children and his children had children all the way down the line until Robin's commander was born. "But before I could carry out my mission, I met somebody who quickly befriended me and caused me to have second thoughts about my mission. Eventually, I gave up on it after that special person became very near and dear to my heart. Somebody that... you remind me of in many ways." Robin did a double take at this.

"Huh?" He said. "What do you mean by that?" Katarina reclined her head against the white haired mage's shoulder and sighed.

"Not only was he a tactician like you," she began, "but he also could see potential in everybody and was fair and just even when faced with hard decisions. I would even go as far as say that... you are that person. You are Kris." Katarina could feel Robin's head shift as he turned to look at her fast with that claim, and thus lifted her head a bit and shook it. "I know, I know, it makes no sense. Perhaps it's even unsettling to hear such a thing! But..." She relaxed once more against Robin's shoulder. "Whether I am wrong or you simply don't recall those days, I want to stay with you and keep learning to be a tactician like you. I'm not sure I'm always the most competent pupil, but I will always give you my best!" Robin was at a loss for words at that proclamation.

"I..." Maybe in another life, he _was_ Kris. Reincarnation was certainly a possibility, after all. Now that the initial shock had worn off, Robin was at ease with what Katarina had said. "Maybe, yeah... I know you'll be a great tactician one day, and I'll do everything I can so that you can finally live that dream for real." At the very least, they would remain friends for a good long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I actually did scream like that when I pulled Katarina in my game. I was in serious need of a red mage (I had tried getting Celica and Tharja too to no avail), so I was crossing my fingers for her. I was so glad I got her over Luke and Athena.
> 
> Also contrary to what this story implies, I actually have pulled a Marth, albeit at 4 stars. I just don't use him because I have better sword wielders like Ryoma and Lucina. He must have been hiding from Katarina or something, I guess.
> 
> I know that Katarina claims that it's _the Summoner_ who's Kris reincarnated, but I feel like it makes more sense for Robin to be a reincarnation of the tactician she knew, as the Summoner's from our world while Robin's from Archanea like her and Kris.


End file.
